In July 1791, King Louis XVI and the Royal family attempted to flee France, dressed as ordinary people. They were arrested in Varennes, on their way to Germany. It is often said that the son of the post house's owner recognized the king after a coin. Other said that the royal princesses were recognized because they were not able to walk correctly without a servant to assist them. Betrayal might be a more rational explanation.

The king was brought back to Paris. A "Republican petition" requiring the overthrowing the king was deposed on Champ-de-Mars, where the Fête de la Fédération had been celebrated on 14 July 1790.

A lot of people gathered to sign the petition. On 17 July, when the meeting turned into a riot, the Mayor of Paris, Bailly, ordered to hoist the red flag, which meant at that time that the mob should disperse. The National Guards shot without warning. More than 50 rioters were killed and immediatly considered as the first martyres of the Revolution. The red flag, "shed with the martyrs' blood" became the symbol of the Revolution by a weird inversion of its initial symbolism.

The Blue and Red parts of the french tricolor originates in the Flag of Paris.

This (the french revolution) was not the first time that the red flag was raised, representing the revolutionary aspirations of the oppressed. The red flag has historically been raised by classes in revolt. In the struggles which rocked the rule of Rome, ultimately bringing it down, the red flag was the battle standard held high by slaves who had no way out but rebellion. And in the great peasant revolts that swept across Germany—peasant armies moved from one part of the land to another raising the red flag in their midst.